Arkansas head coach praises Cole Messina, South Carolina offense
The South Carolina baseball team’s encounters with Arkansas this season yielded different results.
Earlier in the campaign, the then-No. 20 Gamecocks took on the then-No. 2 Razorbacks in a three-game series. South Carolina won just one contest in that series — a 6-3 win in game one of a doubleheader on Saturday, April 20.
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Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn said the Gamecocks’ struggles in that series stemmed from the general dips in performance that are fairly common in the sport, especially towards the end of a long regular season.
“(In) baseball, there’s a lot of ups and downs. They didn’t score a lot of runs that weekend, but we played three games in about 24 hours. It was quick — in and out,” Van Horn said. “Because of the weather that was supposed to come in, we played Friday night and two games on Saturday. And we were out of there.”
But South Carolina was able to carry the positive momentum from that game, as well as from its first-round SEC Tournament win over Alabama, into Wednesday’s matchup against Arkansas. And it won the rematch 6-5, lengthening its stay in Hoover by at least one more day.
After the game, Van Horn extended praise to the Gamecocks for the win. He added that South Carolina has not changed much since the last time the two teams faced off but specifically mentioned its offense as a key strength.
“They’re talented. They have a good team. The lineup is right, left, right left. They don’t really have too many holes in that lineup,” Van Horn said. “We maneuvered through it pretty good except for one guy, and he killed us.”
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That “one guy” was Cole Messina, whose late contributions ultimately helped South Carolina win the game.
Messina has been playing his best baseball of the season when the Gamecocks have needed it most. The junior catcher went 3-for-4 with a pair of two-run home runs and five total RBI in Wednesday’s win over the Razorbacks. Through two SEC Tournament games this year, he is 6-for-8 with three home runs and eight RBI.
Messina boasts a .319 batting average, 19 home runs and a team-high 61 RBI this season. He was recently named to the All-SEC Second Team for his offensive and defensive efforts.
Van Horn said Messina is a potent hitter to face whenever the “Moose is loose,” so to speak.
“I mean, he’s dangerous. When we played them over there earlier in the season, he was the guy that we would not let beat us. As a matter of fact, I know we intentionally walked him in one big situation when the game was on the line we felt like. But we also had first base open. (It) might have been runners at second, third, two down, and we went ahead and put him on,” Van Horn said.
“You know, he made us pay when we made a mistake.”
